Jay-Z looking for a presidential support act

Jay-Z has a special guest in mind for a festival gig in September. No, not a hologram of some dead rap star, but no less than the President of the United States, Barack Obama.

Jay-Z will be headlining the Budweiser Made In America festival in Fairmount Park Philadelphia on September 1 and 2. He told Rolling Stone about his frankly unlikely plan to get the Pres involved.

"I'm gonna give him a call and I'm gonna try to get him to perform," he said, "do a little rendition of Al Green – but I doubt it. I think that opens up the political season." In fact Obama will be well into his campaign for a second term of office, so might have other priorities rather than crooning a little sweet soul music. "He'll be so far into helping the world that he probably won't have time, but I'm absolutely going to ask him."

Jay-Z and Obama have been tight for a while, and the rapper was present at Obama’s inauguration in 2009. He was also very quick to add his support to the President when Obama recently spoke in favour of gay marriage.

"I’ve always thought it as something that was still holding the country back," Jay-Z told CNN. "What people do in their own homes is their business and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It's no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination plain and simple."

Asked if the President’s words could lose him votes, Jay-Z was succinct. "It's really not about votes," he said. "It's about people." That loyalty might be why Obama calls Jay-Z his favourite rapper.